At VanaFest, a Final Fantasy XI event in Japan, Square Enix announced three new expansion chapters coming to Final Fantasy XI. Furthermore, the FFXI character Shantotto was revealed to be a playable character in the forthcoming Final Fantasy Dissidia. Reader Boko was at VanaFest and caught the announcement, pointing us to the new splash page set up for the expansion packs. The titles of the three are "A Crystalline Prophecy - Ode of Life Bestowing"; "A Moogle Kupo d'Etat - Evil in Small Doses" and "A Shantotto Ascension - The Legend Torn, Her Empire Born." The rollout begins with Crystalline Prophecy in the Spring of 2009, followed by Moogle and then Shantotto. All three will be available for around $10 and will be purchased online. There's more via the FFXI Creator's Voice Blog. The full announcement from that site is on the jump.

The Adventure Continues With Three All-New FINAL FANTASY XI Expansion Chapters! *Available for online purchase only ■Masato Kato, who oversaw the original plot conception on FINAL FANTASY XI from initial release up through the Rise of the Zilart expansion, will also play a key role in the creation of this new series of installments. ■The first installment, A Crystalline Prophecy – Ode of Life Bestowing, is slated for release for all languages and platforms in Spring of next year. Subsequent installments will then follow, being released in intervals of every few months. These expansions packages will only be available through online purchase via PlayOnline. The projected cost for each installment is around $10.00. Unlike its predecessors, such as Treasures of Aht Urghan and Wings of the Goddess, this original series of expansion packages will be distributed exclusively as online add-ons. Players may rest assured, however, that version updates for the Wings of the Goddess expansion will still continue for some time. Concurrent with the regular version updates, the new expansions are being developed as a with a “novelette” approach. Indeed, a separate development team has been established specifically for these new expansions. Additional Scenarios? Up until now, expansion packs have generally been developed from a perspective of “lateral expansion,” focusing namely on the introduction of new areas. These three new expansions, however, will deepen the storylines running through pre-existing areas by ushering in all-new plots and intrigues. While not necessarily containing as much content as traditional expansions, these episodic scenarios are designed to take anywhere from one to two months to complete. Target Levels? Though the quests can easily be started by a solo player somewhere in the vicinity of level 30, they will tend to become more difficult as the storyline progresses. By the end, completion of the quests will likely require a party of level 75 characters, with the rewards being geared towards high-level players as well. Players can engage in these new storylines simultaneously with any of the missions from preceding expansions without conflict.